A Snapshot From St. Peter’s Square

Professor Christopher MacEvitt, an associate professor of religion, is in Rome this week preparing for a spring course he is teaching on sacred cities. He was in St. Peter’s Square on March 17, 2013, to hear Pope Francis deliver a Sunday prayer and greeting from the balcony of the papal apartments and he sent to Dartmouth Now his impression of the day:

“I attended today’s Angelus prayer at St. Peter’s, along with thousands upon thousands of other pilgrims and Romans. The piazza was entirely filled, with people lined all the way down the Via della Conciliazione.

“The Angelus prayer is a short one, and his own remarks were equally brief, but the crowd was enormously excited to see him.  People had brought flags and banners to wave, and some broke in to tears as he spoke.

“The Angelus coincided with the running of the Rome marathon, so the whole city was out on the streets for one event or another.  I am attaching a few pictures so that you might get sense of the crowds and atmosphere!”